CONFRONTATION IN THE GULF; U.N. Leader to Meet With Iraqi Minister

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996.
To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.

Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems.
Please send reports of such problems to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

The United Nations Secretary General, who said this weekend that he would personally intervene in the Persian Gulf crisis, is to meet with the Iraqi Foreign Minister on Thursday in Amman, the Jordanian capital, a spokeswoman said today.

The Arab League's representative to the United Nations, Clovis Maksoud, greeted the initiative by Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar as ''something that definitely reduces our level of anxiety.''

Mr. Perez de Cuellar ''inspires a great deal of confidence among the Iraqis in view of the long-established relations that he made during the Iran-Iraq conflict,'' Mr. Maksoud said in Washington. ''I am sure that he will be able to elicit a positive response'' from Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi Foreign Minister.

In Washington, Brent Scowcroft, the White House national security adviser, said the Bush Administration would have ''no problem'' with an attempt by the Secretary General to mediate in the crisis.

But Mr. Scowcroft observed that the United States is demanding an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, a condition that Baghdad has been unwilling to meet even as it has signaled a possible willingness to negotiate with Washington.

Once an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait is accomplished, the United States is ready to ''talk about anything,'' he said.

The United Nations spokeswoman, Nadia Younes, said Mr. Perez de Cuellar was planning ''a full exchange of views on the crisis'' in the gulf with Mr. Aziz. Mr. Perez de Cuellar announced on Saturday that he would seek a meeting with Mr. Aziz as he ended a visit to Bogota, Colombia, before returning to New York.

The Secretary General said ''that the time had arrived for him to start a diplomatic process aimed at solving the critical situation in the gulf area,'' Ms. Younes said. She said Mr. Perez de Cuellar had been in touch with the United Nations representatives of several countries since he returned to New York.

No U.N. Comment on Hussein

Ms. Younes did not say when the Secretary General would leave for Amman. And the United Nations Secretariat issued no response to a remark on Saturday by Iraq's President, Saddam Hussein, that the Secretary General was welcome in Baghdad.

Mr. Perez de Cuellar announced that hoped to meet with Mr. Aziz on Saturday, hours after the Security Council adopted a resolution giving countries the right to enforce the economic embargo against Iraq by halting shipping to and from the country.

It was the fifth measure on the Gulf crisis voted by the Council since Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2.

At his news conference in Bogota, Mr. Perez de Cuellar said: ''After the adoption by the Security Council of five very important resolutions, the moment has arrived for the Secretary General of the United Nations to start diplomatic efforts aimed to solve in all its aspects the critical situation in the gulf area.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

''Therefore, I have invited today the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, Mr. Tariq Aziz, to urgently meet with me, preferably next week, in New York or Geneva, in order to engage with me without dela, in a full exchange of views on the crisis.''

Mr. Perez de Cuellar said he felt obliged to make use of the personal ties that he forged with Mr. Aziz during more than five years of negotiations on the war between Iran and Iraq. The eight-year conflict ended in a cease-fire in 1988.

The Secretary General suggested that the Iraqi Government was considering ways of seeking a nonmilitary resolution of the gulf standoff.

He said he would discuss all of the issues in the crisis with Mr. Aziz, including the Iraqi Government's refusal to let many foreigners depart from occupied Kuwait and Iraq.

The Secretary General said that he was acting on his own initiative, not at the behest of the 15-member Security Council. He said he felt he could intervene in the standoff without hampering efforts by the Council, which has also condemned the Iraqi annexation of Kuwait as null and void, called for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces and demanded that all foreigners be freed.

Mr. Perez de Cuellar expressed a hope that nations with a military presence in the gulf region would show prudence in the days to come, saying it would ease his task.

Mr. Aziz confirmed today that he intends to confer with the Secretary General this week.

Interviewed by Cable News Network in Baghdad, he said, ''We are open to listen to suggestions.'' He would not comment on whether his country was prepared to make concessions on its takeover of Kuwait.

Telephone calls to the Kuwaiti Mission to the United Nations late today went unanswered.

Secretary General's Role

Mr. Maksoud of the Arab League said that as ''the institutional personification of the United Nations,'' Mr. Perez de Cuellar ''has a stake in bringing about a diffusion of the level of tension, and restoring rational discourse as a prelude to a consequential negotiated settlement.''

He said the Secretary General faced the challenge of reconciling ''the requirements of legitimacy - that is, the Iraqi withdrawal and the restoration of the legitimate Government of Kuwait,'' without jeopardizing the chances for peace.

''It's a very difficult task,'' Mr. Maksoud said. But he said Mr. Perez de Cuellar had already helped to alter a ''collision course'' in the gulf crisis by seeking talks with Mr. Aziz.

A version of this article appears in print on August 27, 1990, on Page A00010 of the National edition with the headline: CONFRONTATION IN THE GULF; U.N. Leader to Meet With Iraqi Minister. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe